Calories in a Banana

Banana is my favorite fruit. So looking up the calories in a banana was one of the first things I did. I wasn't too surprised to find out that in this case, size does matter! So here are the number for calories in a banana:

• Small banana (101 gr, 6-7"): 90 calories in a banana
• Medium banana (118 gr, 7-8"): 105 calories in a banana
• Large banana (136 gr, 8-9"): 121 calories in a banana

Most of the calories in a banana come from sugar (more than 50%), but looking beyond the calories in a banana, there are a lof of other "goodies" inside it. Take for example Vitamin C. A small banana consists of 15% of the recommended intake of Vitamin C for adults, and a large banana has upto 20%.

Remember than we are talking about fresh and raw bananas. Cooking, steaming or drying he bananas takes out a lot of the vitamins and lower the nutrition values. If you check the calories in a banana that was dried like banana chips, you'll find out there are more than 5 times the calories in a banana that stayed fresh and yummy!

Another good tip would be exchanging all sorts of banana flavored desserts with eating pieces of banana with low fat yogurt. The calories in a banana plus the calories in yogurt would be less that any commercial dessert.